Birmingham City - Will We Stay or Will We Go?
March 30th, 2008 by Mad DogBy Russell Dempsey
‘m concerned at the moment that we’re all so confident in our new management team and ‘new look’ young and hungry squad (wasn’t that new to the Championship almost two years ago?) that we’re overlooking some real problems.
Firstly, that three goalkeepers supposedly brought in to replace Maik Taylor simply haven’t made the grade. For all Colin Doyle’s early success with Steve Bruce, he obviously doesn’t have McLeish’s support. Krysiak can’t seem to get a match in Scotland, and Kingson - though obviously great in Ghana’s squad - has hardly sparked to life in our reserves….
Secondly, our lack of clean sheets (urgh!) Middlesborough on Boxing Day was our last clean sheet. Zarate has scored three goals in his last two appearances, and thank Barry Fry he did, cos it’s hard to know where else they would come from. From a hattrick against Spurs, Forssell hasn’t scored since. McFadden will be excused for a lack of goals after coming back from injury, and Jerome’s five goals suggest he has been harshly left on the bench….until you realise he’s played 23 matches. Not a great return is it? Sure he’s still young, but our whole squad is ‘young and hungry’ and youth is no excuse, especially when our ‘older’ players like Forssell only have 7 goals themselves (allbeit from a far lesser 16 matches).
O’Connor simply hasn’t looked sharp enough to me all season, probably why he’s only played seven matches all season.
Our midfielders have supported well, namely Larsson and Kapo. McSheff has been disappointing until very recently, and the fact that Damien Johnson is seemingly accepted in the centre of midfield every week (by me too) shows how weak we are for options. Nafti can be a pillar of strength, but can also make too many errors for an international player.
This brings me onto my other worry. Ridgewell has made some ‘individual errors’ that have cost us. As has Maik Taylor. And Radhi Jaidi. And Franck Quedrue. Not to mention McSheffrey’s or Forssell’s missed goal opportunities. I could go on. Our recent point of blame was ‘weakness at set piece defending’ which is ironic when I read stats that suggest we’ve scored a higer percentage of our goals from set pieces than any other club in the league!
Our form against the ‘top’ clubs has been excellent, continued in great style against Manchester City today, a club with European ambitions.
This is the best I can muster in terms of confidence. I feel 99% certain we won’t go down this season, and feel McLeish can do a great job for us should we survive this year, but…….
….what if we’re not backed financially by the Board again? McFadden, Murphy and Zarate on loan were a mere fraction of what we were expecting in January, especially when we allowed Danns and Sadler to leave…
De Ridder was supposed to be one of our most skillful players but seems like he can’t even get a bench spot at the moment….
Fixture wise, we have Wigan, Everton, Villa, Liverpool, Fulham and Blackburn yet to play.
My guess is we’ll beat Villa and Liverpool due to their ‘top half status’ and comparing earlier performances (and the derby factor)
We’ll draw against Fulham and Blackburn
and we’ll lose against Wigan and Everton.
This would leave us with only 38 points. As 40 points is the target most banded around for safety, it’s not looking as rosy as I’d like. It’s also looking even more vital that we won today.
I’d trade beating Villa for picking up full points against Wigan and Everton. Fulham and Blackburn are definitely winnable matches, but if it’s the same team that could only scrape a 1-1 home draw with Fulham, lost 2-1 away to a decent Blackburn side, let in two goals to a poor Wigan team not far from losing their manager, and lost 3-1 to Everton, it’s all a big ask. Liverpool and Everton both also have Europe to play for, and so it appears the Villa match could be crucial to our survival. It’ll be a tough match, and the smart money will be on Villa with home advantage, but Villa’s capitulation to a rampant Manchester United today could spell the start of their season fizzling out. What other than league position do they have to play for now? Perhaps I’d best bet on a draw?
I still feel Fulham and Bolton are the more likely to go down, but it’s teams like these rather than Blues’ quality that should keep us in the Premier League this year in my oh so humble opinion.
Prove me wrong against Wigan Blues, and I’m sure it’ll be fun listening to Steve Bruce blame the rub of the green again .
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